Null-ABC by Henry Beam Piper;John Joseph McGuire
page 43 of 140 (30%)
page 43 of 140 (30%)
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suspicious, shoot first and ask questions afterwards. What's your
name, sergeant?" "Coccozello, sir. Guido Coccozello." "All right. There'll be a medic or a pharmacist--a Literate, anyhow--with medicine for Mr. Pelton. He'll ask for you, by name, and mention me. And there'll be another Literate, maybe; he'll know your name, and use mine. Hurry, now, sergeant." He jumped into his 'copter, pulled forward the plexiglass canopy, and took off vertically to ten thousand feet, then, orienting himself, swooped downward toward a landing stage on the other side of the East River, cutting across traffic levels with an utter contempt for regulations. The building on which he landed was one of the principal pharmacies; he spiraled down on the escalator to the main floor and went directly to the Literate in charge, noticing that he wore on his Sam Browne not only the badges of retail-merchandising, pharmacist and graduate chemist but also that of medic-in-training. Snatching a pad and pencil from a counter, he wrote hastily: _Your private office, at once; urgent and important._ Looking at it, the Literate nodded in recognition of Cardon's Literacy. "Over this way, sir," he said, guiding Cardon to his small cubicle office. |
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